Wednesday, September 06, 2006

According to this article, the forward pass turned 100 years old on Tuesday. But that just didn't sound right to me. A hundred years? Seems like that forward pass hasn't been around but a couple decades. So, I went deep into the bowels of the MZone archives to discover that my intuition was correct.

According to my research, the first forward pass thrown by a Michigan quarterback took place the season after Bo retired, on September 15, 1990 in the opener against Notre Dame. There were, however, records of opposing teams throwing the ball forward, particularly in the Rose Bowl.

Legend has it that the forward pass was considered "trendy garbage" that wouldn't last by prior regimes in Ann Arbor.

Benny,somewhere, sometime,this week we should all hoist a glass of grand marnier in toast to Gary Moeller. because of his "innovation", Elvis, Todd Collins, Griese, Brady, Navarre, & Henson all came to Michigan and then made it into the NFL. whatever his other short comings, he brought the forward pass to A2 and should be celebrated for that alone.

Hi Guys, You have got to watch the recent Michigan Football Memories DVD and get the low-down on UM football history... Back in the early part of last century, Fielding H. Yost pioneered the forward pass in American football, which had previously been nothing more extensive than glorified rugby. That is how we used to rack up 49 - 0 scores against Stanford in the Rose Bowl, etc.You can buy the DVD on M-Den or rent it at michigan area movie-rental places (same section as all the Red Wing commemorative DVDs, etc.), but it is definitely worth the 1.5 hours to learn about Yost, Crisler, Oosterban, etc. There is also some bonus footage of 70's era games, etc.Anyway, bottom line, we invented the forward pass!!!

Follow the MZone

Subscribe To

The MZone-slash-MichiganZone.net-slash-MichiganZone.blogspot.com is in no way affiliated with the University of Michigan and/or U-M football in any way. If you thought it was, frankly I'm surprised you know how to use a computer.